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Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

char.gd

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Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#251
post #3

> But recently, I realized I’d gotten tired of Apple’s attitude toward the desktop. The progress in macOS land has basically been dead since Yosemite, two years ago, and Apple’s updates to the platform have been incredibly small. So, like creating a full blown new programming language (Swift)? Or a full new filesystem (AFS)? Integration of Cloud storage directly to the desktop? Siri on the desktop? Saving RAM through…

All of the things you mention as proof of Apple caring about the desktop are things I don't give a shit about. I needed _none_ of the things you list. Nor do any of the people I work with.

True, there probably isn't much the average user would like to change in OSX. But it would be okay if stuff was broken was fixed and stuff that was wonky got improved.

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Comments like this make it hard to take any side of the discussion seriously. /Neither/ of the OSes are "Escher'esque nightmare[s]." • macOS Finder: http://i.imgur.com/9Y5hK0e.png • Windows Explorer: http://i.imgur.com/ef7CnJ4.png Alright. Maybe not nightmarish, but one of these IS objectively more convoluted than the other. Let's start with something simple: WHY does the "Options" button on the Windows Explorer Ri…

Perhaps you're failing to view things from the perspective of the average user? I see the MacOS Finder and see unlabelled icons. My elderly folks are terrible at remembering what various icons do, and what error messages are for, etc. I've trained them to pause and read the words on the toolbar, read the words on the window, etc. as they're generally self-explanatory. So the finder that is more convoluted for a more…

Right click the tool bar in Finder and choose "Icons and text" from the drop down. One can discuss what should be default.

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#253
I've been going through a bit of an identity crisis recently. for the best 7 years I've been an xubuntu c++ guy exclusively. Recently I've taken up learning goland and, to make things more interesting, I decided to give the windows dev environment a spin. I've never touched a mac product in my life[1] so I can't compare it with that, but let me tell you, windows means business. you'll obviously need a few things (visualstudio, code and gnuwin32), but the work they put in their flagship products make the experience enjoyable is nothing short of amazing. Yes Microsoft, keep courting me, I'm listening.

[1] except for the original shuffle which is the perfect jogging companion.

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#255

I'm not 100% happy with where Apple is at, but I don't think I ever was. But I'm not going to switch. I get the slickest hardware, great battery life, the best touchpad and keyboard, and a hi-resolution screen that doesn't have battery life, flicker, tint, or scaling issues. Windows is still...Windows. The bash subsystem is half-baked. Windows itself is still the same mess. Docking is still a joke. Performance is ter…

> Somehow I shut my laptop off and it booted backup to a failure message, I had to make another bootable USB and go online to find out how to do a fsck. I was using external monitors without issue for a month, and then one day the configuration changed to a point where I couldn't even use the laptop with it's built-in display. The sound and volume controls are a joke. I was prevented from installing any packages beca…

With great power comes great responsibility.

If you want raw power, you can buy a car with 500 horsepower. But you handle all of that power, you'll need traction control and maybe stability control, and anti-lock brakes for when you need to stop it. But all of that limits the amount of power you have available, limits your control. Now, a race car driver would look at these driver assist tools and say "I'm sick of people expecting race cars to work like their Jetta and then running into problems that us professional race car drivers don't run into". When you complain that the tires spin or you are having a hard time working the clutch and steering wheel without power assist, they might even tell you "these problems sound more like inexperience with driving race cars than anything else".

And they'd be 100% right. But I'm trying to get to the grocery store, not win the Daytona 500. I want a car with power steering and an automatic gearbox and anti-lock brakes and traction control and an airbag. You may say "computers were designed for power and Linux gives you maximum power!" like the other guy commenting did but I don't want that because when it inevitably breaks (because I'm inexperienced), I don't want to be stuck on the side of the road reading manpages and stack exchange posts with no answers and trying to navigate mailing lists. I have a job to do.

(Seriously, did saying "sounds like you're just inexperienced with Linux" sound good in your head? Because it certainly didn't sound good reading it.)

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming, VR, upcoming 3D and Cortana are a few reasons I can think of why someone might pick Windows over MacOS. I think you're discounting the performance aspect as well - if workload X is too slow on the fastest mac, it may well still run on a windows machine since they can be specced higher. Cost isn't a factor for everyone - sometimes you literally just need the fastest possible machine, in which case Windows can…

>Gaming, VR, upcoming 3D Am I missing something or does this seem like one thing? Or is there use case for VR that isn't gaming? And what is 'upcoming 3D' exactly? >if workload X is too slow on the fastest mac, it may well still run on a windows machine Can't argue with that, but what are such workloads if you are not game developer? Wouldn't cluster of Linux servers always be a better choice? Unless of course you ar…

> Or is there use case for VR that isn't gaming?

Training and design.

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#257
post #53

I'm in the same boat (with everyone, it seems). One remaining big differentiator, for me, is the resell value and service support of Macs. I can use a Mac for three full years, under warranty, and then turn around and sell it used the day AppleCare expires. And, I can regularly get 50-60% of original sale price (realizing that I've also sunk $300 for AppleCare and taxes). After three years, you'd be hard pressed to g…

> After three years, you'd be hard pressed to give away a Windows machine Because they actually update the hardware...

No, it's because there are new, low-end PCs that can be bought. There's no low-end Mac, so it means that people who don't want a Mac but don't want to spend as much buy used Macs.

If Apple sold a $400 Mac, you wouldn't be able to give away a 3-year-old Mac either.

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#259
post #153
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure you're working off of recent, in-depth Windows experience? > I get the slickest hardware, great battery life, the best touchpad and keyboard, and a hi-resolution screen that doesn't have battery life, flicker, tint, or scaling issues. None of these things are universal among Windows machines. I can't remember which model, but a Verge review recently said that a Windows laptop had surpassed the best Mac (…

> None of these things are universal among Windows machines. I can't remember which model, but a Verge review recently said that a Windows laptop had surpassed the best Mac (in terms of hardware quality). Doubtful. Apple does crazy stuff like custom ACPI for Thunderbolt controllers so they can be very efficient. Or having each of the fins on a fan be at a different angle so they have a different pitch and fan noise i…

> Or having each of the fins on a fan be at a different angle so they have a different pitch and fan noise is distributed across the sound spectrum (reducing total perceived noise).

Not trying to take away from the innovation of that idea, but IMO ventilation is one of the few areas where I think Macbooks are strictly worse than the PC laptops I've used. The Macbook I was given for work (13" Pro, 2015) constantly overheats, as there isn't really any vent for the fan to push the air out of. I'm sure it's a conscious design decision not to have a vent (either because it "looks bad" or because blowing out hot air is considered worse than overheating the laptop itself), but I'd personally have trouble counting the way that my Macbook ventilates as a net win in "hardware quality".

Re: Why I left Mac for Windows: Apple has given up

#260
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>First, they were a computer company driven by a man who loved computers ("first" here is the Jobs return era) ... then they became a Computer company who also made a phone. Then they became a computer company who also made a phone and a tablet. Then they became a phone company who also made computers and tablets. >Now they are a phone company who presides over the death throws of an amazing operating system that is…

Windows 8 was ridiculous, and one of the things that gave MS a big wake up call. Its now a different company. Windows 10 is leaps better in about every way than 8 (not without its own issues, of course). Disclosure: I am a MS MVP. MS will listen to me in almost every area I care about.

Interesting. Yes, though I've never used Win 8 (and don't want to), from the little I had read, it seemed like the idea of trying to merge the mobile and desktop paradigms was a bad idea from the start, and doomed to fail.
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